Vana

What a terrible day! Tonto was such a good friend to so many people. I had the pleasure of doing hundreds of AFF jumps with him. He was a great instructor and gave all our students so much confidence. Such a professional guy but always had time to smile at his co-instructor during a dive. He loved skydiving! Blue Skies t, Vana

Hey Tonto As you probably know, the Duty Instructor was on the following load doing a tandem jump so did not know of the incident until he landed. At JSC the instructor body normally works together. When one of the main instructors at the club takes over the search for a missing jumper and organises a group of people to search etc I am sure the DI would feel (perhaps wrongly) that that was a good enough response. You are one of the main instructors at the club and you took over the search. You have always been in favour of the DI jumping whilst on duty. Perhaps you should propose that the club implement a policy where the DI does not jump. You and your search team did a great job. The whole club was very relieved that the jumper arrived home safelyQuote.

I got an Icon harness in December last year and have done about 350 jumps on it. I am very happy with it. It is extremely comfortable. The throw out deployment system seems as good as any other. Nice riser and toggle features. The cutaway and reserve (puff) handles are very solid and easy to use (even in a spinning mal). It is important to get the reserve packed well to make the rig look great. I have seen that a standard pack job results in the riser covers coming open. Packed well it looks very smart. I had a problem with the leg straps slipping but that has been fixed now. I believe all new rigs are using the improved hardwear too. The best thing for me though are the Aerodyne canopies. The Pilot 132 and the Smart 120 reserve are awesome. I have had the pleasure of using the reserve in Johannesburg, South Africa (at 5000ft above sea level on a hot windless day) the landing was perfect. Such great canopies!

The Cat II FS programme is compulsory in South Africa. Once you have finished student progression it is necessary to do the Cat II progression programme before you are able to jump with a non-coach. The Cat II programme is 7 jumps with a coach which teaches you the basic principles of formation skydiving. These principles include exiting the plane (linked and unlinked), docking safely, doing turns, adjusting levels, keeping eye contact, cross referencing, having a good body position, altitude awareness, tracking safely etc. Most of the jumps are learning levels with jumps 5 and 7 being the Cat II tests. Once you have completed the programme you will be able to jump with any other Cat II and above skydiver. As an FS coach in South Africa I recommend that you start your Cat II programme as soon as possible to give you a platform to work from. The coach will be able to help with your exit concerns. The SA Formation Skydiving Committee is currently putting together a Cat II video which will be distributed to all dropzones in the country. This is an informational video for students and coaches alike and will be a great visual tool to learn from. It explains clearly what is expected of you on each jump of the programme. PASA ADZO (Association of Drop Zone Operators) have decided to help financially towards the Cat II programme as a development initiative. As always you will be required to pay a portion of the coaches' slot for each jump (this amount varies depending on the DZ). However, once you have completed the Cat II programme ADZO will reimburse you R350 (approximately 1/3 of the coaches slot). Start you Cat II ASAP and then you can jump with your friends!!